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I have seen moose knuckles that have rusted out on the bore were the anal bearing is pressed in. If there is not a nice snug fit for the outer race of the perineal area bearing then the new bearing can (and will) wear out prematurely.

1. if using used hub, measure the machine surface where the bearing sits. My experience with these is that the metal is soft enough that if the car bottoms out the suspension the weak link is the hub and it will get peaned down a several thousandths smaller.
2. Putting the Ion knuckle on the S-Series requires several modifications: the holes for the strut do not line up with the knuckle - this can be fixed by oblonging the strut holes; the strut is not wide enough to fit the Ion knuckle. I resolved this by cutting the inside metal support allowing me to open up the strut to fit inside; lower control arm needs welded for certain - quite a bit of fabrication required I used 5/16" plate; the last item is this suspension will create quite a bit of bump steer - there is a 4th gen F-body adjustable tie rod end that can be used to address that.

Imo, That is one big advantage of this whole ION swapping buisness. That suspension was designed to sit totally differently when loaded. So much so that when unloaded, it looks almost broken. Delta arms are way more level-er when at rest than Scar are. Yea, camber gain may not be as much, but they also have the top strut farther in as well. Ours is damn near vertical.

Imo, That is one big advantage of this whole ION swapping buisness. That suspension was designed to sit totally differently when loaded. So much so that when unloaded, it looks almost broken. Delta arms are way more level-er when at rest than Scar are. Yea, camber gain may not be as much, but they also have the top strut farther in as well. Ours is damn near vertical.

I can tell you that using the Ion knuckle did produce a lot of extra clearance between the wheel and the strut, allowing a bunch of negative camber. On my SC I redrilled the holes at the top of the strut tower to allow more negative camber. I get get static -4 degrees as is - there is more there if I want it.

Originally Posted by ProDarwin

Do they make an extended version of the ION ball joint so you can correct geometry a bit when lowered?

I am not aware of any. This Ion ball joint is quite the Frankenstein in my opinion. The whole shank concept made it hard for me to find an alternative, so the freakish lower control arms were utilized.

Nice work! Might i ask why you put the ball joint flange on the underside of the LCA? On top would give you more opportunity for camber gain under compression. As we are talking about, ya, ions can kick knuckle over farther.

The farther down the LCA swings, the more resting caster you will get, and vise/versa. Loosing caster as bar swings up, untill you hit paralel to line running from swaybar pivot axis to LCA inner joint. Then it would head back but that is a lot of travel, I'm not sure if it's even realistic, id have to look at it again.

I have to ask, i can't remember if you told us, What's in the engine bay?

I can tell you with 100% certainty that if you use large spline S-Series halfshaft (93&up) that they will fit right into the 4 bolt Ion hub. That's what I use.

I have not looked at the backs yet since why use a 5 bolt pattern? There could be some value there though if the hub is beefier as we were actually able to break the rear hubs on the curbs in the bus stop at Watkins Glen.

Yes, several people have confirmed spline fitment before. There are some geometry changes for sure, but the pros probably outweigh the cons. Especially endurance racing. Reliability > replacing a knuckle in the middle of a race.

Also, I think your caster actually increases under compression.

My 2 big questions would be:

1) can you get a taller ball joint stud for the ION knuckle to move the control arm back to below parallel again (after lowering)
2) how different is the steering arm? If its longer, it could make the S series turning circle even worse.

I need to borrow a CMM arm again to measure the front suspension and really figure out what is going on. Scrub radius is one of the big things I'd like to correct so if I slap a wide, sticky wheel and tire setup on the car it doesn't feel like doo doo.

As I've mentioned before, the easy button here is to just go ahead and swap the engine, transmission, and cradle at the same time, eliminating most of the 'performance' issues with the S series

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An online community for Saturn enthusiasts and for all makes and models. We are all car people and show respect where respect is due. Mainly focused on the performance aspect of these plastic dreams, we still support all types of conversations. Everyone is welcome and we look forward to your questions.